Yesterday night I received a call from my old classmate who returned from Australlia last week. It was a pleasant surprise - after all we haven't seen each other for nearly a year after a dozen months back when we watched a movie together. That was...the stop-motion animation about Gromit and Wallace!
So yesterday I took the initiative to meet up with her and we did settled on a date and time...And guess what! Another female seems bent on stopping us from meeting at all cost. No prizes for guessing who, lots of prizes for removing this obstacle. Or ideas for removing. For every word I type on this matter, the lesser chance I have for meeting my friend. I refuse to acknowledge (once again) that this is false hope.
A few thousand kilometres from where I sit, the PPP party of Pakistan (not Thailand) has decided to apoint the late Mrs Bhutto's son and husband to succeed her as the new Pakistani opposition leaders. Pop and I have the same views - that these two guys would soon be eliminated one way or another, simply because humans cannot stand under the fire of gunpowder. Mrs Bhutto was killed by the gun/bomb, in other words, by gunpowder.
I have spotted this army-government political scene globally - from General Pol-pot (the f***er who killed thousands of people) of Cambodia to today's Myanmar generals, and without doubt our dearest Musharraf back in Pakistan.
Oh, I also refuse to forget about Thailand and its bloodless coup from the military. All one has to do is to roll some tanks into the city centre, into some of the towns,and bingo, we've got a military-controlled government!
On a side note I would be taking a trip to Geylang to replace a screw that I dropped from Mr Sze's oboe :O. Very dangerous.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Verbal Die-hor-ree-yer
I was pretty amused by two RJC students - an Indian and a Chinese - while I was returning home with my family from a music shopping spree at Sweet Classics. Of course, they were having a year-end sale so if we missed it the next time I could get my hands on Chopin ballades was December 2008.
So the story went like this - us three people went up the bus headed for home, and due to the lack of seats we all had to stand. So the crowd was a useful plot device for my dad and I to 'eavesdrop' on an intelligent conversation from the RJC pair.
I have to admit that it was not eavesdropping, for there existed not a single eave in the us, and the pair talked damn loudly, so we didn't really have to strain those little ears. Allegedly, my dad and I were the ones to talk first - in reference to the Royal Commonwealth essay of whether Planet Earth was suitable for 'first contact'. Before long we were starting to hear bits and pieces of their talk, which really seemed to be plucked out from thin air. Soon it became apparent that they were really doing their best to emit the 'nerd' aura, or otherwise let everyone know they are from RJC, premier school of Singapore.
In any case, the topics ranged from how humans would cope in a hundred years time, whether another species would overtake humans as the dominant species of the planet, whether we would be able to adapt to the new environmental problems, and that there would be two different kinds of humans living in two different environments. The reason I am so critical of what the two guys were talking about was simply because they were obviously picking out subjects from nowhere and trying to indulge in some cheemenology that would make me grip things down under (not the continent, lah) start sweating, and think, 'Shit, these RJ guys are really good'.
How do I know that they are from RJ then? Well one of them mentioned, "Imagine if we were to have a colony of 100 RJ people..." The bus driver decided to brake at that split second/My dad and I jerked at the mention of 'RJ', and the Indian guy just had to repeat louder this time, "A COLONY OF 100 RJ PEOPLE".
Soon after that, when the seats became plentiful, Pop and I took a seat, and what do you know, the Chinese guy was wearing a Hullet T-shirt! (If you're confused why didn't we look at them in the first place, it was because you were most likely to get a little embarassed just to even look interested. Hey, we're Singaporean ok? Year-end sales, discounts...what do you think?)
Unfortunately I didn't manage to get an autograph from the two social scientists, but what really shocked me was the non-sense they were talking about. Hey, get your facts right. They didn't even know the political situation of Somalia, but started sprouting whimsical postulates that one day Somalian people will be taken by the larger nations as slaves. With the emergence of human rights groups, when do you think this will happen?
Anyway here's something from Pop's brain - that America only does things that satisfy it's own interests. So if has nothing to do with America, America wouldn't touch it. Of course, with oil-rich Somalia...
Who doesn't need oil?
On the shopping spree, I managed to grab hold of four scores, Chopin's Polonaises and Ballades, Bach's Preludes and Fugues Book 2, and Schumann's Novelettes, the one my YST colleague Tarin's got. Yum!
I'm looking forward to school. Someday, someday...
So the story went like this - us three people went up the bus headed for home, and due to the lack of seats we all had to stand. So the crowd was a useful plot device for my dad and I to 'eavesdrop' on an intelligent conversation from the RJC pair.
I have to admit that it was not eavesdropping, for there existed not a single eave in the us, and the pair talked damn loudly, so we didn't really have to strain those little ears. Allegedly, my dad and I were the ones to talk first - in reference to the Royal Commonwealth essay of whether Planet Earth was suitable for 'first contact'. Before long we were starting to hear bits and pieces of their talk, which really seemed to be plucked out from thin air. Soon it became apparent that they were really doing their best to emit the 'nerd' aura, or otherwise let everyone know they are from RJC, premier school of Singapore.
In any case, the topics ranged from how humans would cope in a hundred years time, whether another species would overtake humans as the dominant species of the planet, whether we would be able to adapt to the new environmental problems, and that there would be two different kinds of humans living in two different environments. The reason I am so critical of what the two guys were talking about was simply because they were obviously picking out subjects from nowhere and trying to indulge in some cheemenology that would make me grip things down under (not the continent, lah) start sweating, and think, 'Shit, these RJ guys are really good'.
How do I know that they are from RJ then? Well one of them mentioned, "Imagine if we were to have a colony of 100 RJ people..." The bus driver decided to brake at that split second/My dad and I jerked at the mention of 'RJ', and the Indian guy just had to repeat louder this time, "A COLONY OF 100 RJ PEOPLE".
Soon after that, when the seats became plentiful, Pop and I took a seat, and what do you know, the Chinese guy was wearing a Hullet T-shirt! (If you're confused why didn't we look at them in the first place, it was because you were most likely to get a little embarassed just to even look interested. Hey, we're Singaporean ok? Year-end sales, discounts...what do you think?)
Unfortunately I didn't manage to get an autograph from the two social scientists, but what really shocked me was the non-sense they were talking about. Hey, get your facts right. They didn't even know the political situation of Somalia, but started sprouting whimsical postulates that one day Somalian people will be taken by the larger nations as slaves. With the emergence of human rights groups, when do you think this will happen?
Anyway here's something from Pop's brain - that America only does things that satisfy it's own interests. So if has nothing to do with America, America wouldn't touch it. Of course, with oil-rich Somalia...
Who doesn't need oil?
On the shopping spree, I managed to grab hold of four scores, Chopin's Polonaises and Ballades, Bach's Preludes and Fugues Book 2, and Schumann's Novelettes, the one my YST colleague Tarin's got. Yum!
I'm looking forward to school. Someday, someday...
Friday, December 28, 2007
Reflections and Goals - a cliched post
After a little dish of rice, meat, and fried egg with prawn, I decided to have a look around the blogs of my friends. No doubt as the end of the 2007 year draws closer, some of us would start reflecting about the major bulls and bears, ups and downs of the year.
While I know you guys have seen these reflections so many times already, I have decided to post one just to do away with that guilty conscience that I have not done my own reflections.
On matters of the piano - 2007 has been an especially important year for me, with my leaving of NAFA to join YST and my swansong concert (the days preceding it turned me into a nervous freak) at NAFA. My successful audition into YST also was another turning point in my life, because it really (ok this is not some yada yada, it's true!) opened a new chapter of my relationship with the piano.
I also started writing more and more compositions, one of which was performed by the composer at YST.
Moving on to matters of RISE - there was the unforgettable New York trip, which was another huge milestone for our CCA. And then there was the yearly elections, where I handed the semi-EXCO position of Student Conductor (probably my first dream job before hitting 18)
Of course, I did improve on my soccer.
On matters of studying, I continue to neglect it as much as possible to concentrate on controlling and perfecting my control over the black music-making machine in my living room. That's bad, but I know that I have to just survive in RI while improving myself when it comes to music.
I do not, however, regret not joining the NPVC 2007, because I know my limitations and my ability to handle ever-increasing (add in a touch of emo) stress on myself. Well, I simply wasn't good enough, because I did not have any pieces at hand that were capable of putting up a fight at the Competetion. I would also like to say that my preperations were hindered by my LRSM, which in the end payed off with a Distinction. (yay)
I am pretty satisfied also with my ability to play melodic scales contrary-wise (ascending and descending melodic scales are different) and use it in Around the Keyboard in 8 minutes. However with the inclusion of it and a little editing and expanding around, it has turned out to be exactly 15 minutes long. Not a bad start to a practice session!
Just before the end of the year though I feel glad that I managed to pick up and produce a single sound from the oboe! Following some practice on it yesterday night, I woke up this morning eating my chee cheong fun with a little swollen inner cheeks, but by now (10pm) it has nearly disappeared.
Meanwhile, some goals to set in 2008. I would continue on the never-ending journey of expanding my piano technique and perfecting it. To me technique is like an arsenal of skills that you would have to use when playing the piano. When you face a problem, you choose a skill that you can use and apply it on the problem. Perfecting a skill includes making sure you use it properly, and maximising its use while not hurting your wrist, shoulders, backbone etc. To guys out there, it's simply like a Dota hero levelling his skills and using them.
Not forgetting my biggest group project of the year, which would be creating a National Day song and submitting it to Sing Singapore. My dad told me, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Well from that it would seem a less difficult step to capture the coverage of our song. In any case Hongrui, Ben Low, Bryan and me would be working very hard to create a song that would reach out to you younger generation, and older generations. Much easier said than done, of course. But we will do our best!
With that, I end my reflections of 2007 and goals of 2008.
While I know you guys have seen these reflections so many times already, I have decided to post one just to do away with that guilty conscience that I have not done my own reflections.
On matters of the piano - 2007 has been an especially important year for me, with my leaving of NAFA to join YST and my swansong concert (the days preceding it turned me into a nervous freak) at NAFA. My successful audition into YST also was another turning point in my life, because it really (ok this is not some yada yada, it's true!) opened a new chapter of my relationship with the piano.
I also started writing more and more compositions, one of which was performed by the composer at YST.
Moving on to matters of RISE - there was the unforgettable New York trip, which was another huge milestone for our CCA. And then there was the yearly elections, where I handed the semi-EXCO position of Student Conductor (probably my first dream job before hitting 18)
Of course, I did improve on my soccer.
On matters of studying, I continue to neglect it as much as possible to concentrate on controlling and perfecting my control over the black music-making machine in my living room. That's bad, but I know that I have to just survive in RI while improving myself when it comes to music.
I do not, however, regret not joining the NPVC 2007, because I know my limitations and my ability to handle ever-increasing (add in a touch of emo) stress on myself. Well, I simply wasn't good enough, because I did not have any pieces at hand that were capable of putting up a fight at the Competetion. I would also like to say that my preperations were hindered by my LRSM, which in the end payed off with a Distinction. (yay)
I am pretty satisfied also with my ability to play melodic scales contrary-wise (ascending and descending melodic scales are different) and use it in Around the Keyboard in 8 minutes. However with the inclusion of it and a little editing and expanding around, it has turned out to be exactly 15 minutes long. Not a bad start to a practice session!
Just before the end of the year though I feel glad that I managed to pick up and produce a single sound from the oboe! Following some practice on it yesterday night, I woke up this morning eating my chee cheong fun with a little swollen inner cheeks, but by now (10pm) it has nearly disappeared.
Meanwhile, some goals to set in 2008. I would continue on the never-ending journey of expanding my piano technique and perfecting it. To me technique is like an arsenal of skills that you would have to use when playing the piano. When you face a problem, you choose a skill that you can use and apply it on the problem. Perfecting a skill includes making sure you use it properly, and maximising its use while not hurting your wrist, shoulders, backbone etc. To guys out there, it's simply like a Dota hero levelling his skills and using them.
Not forgetting my biggest group project of the year, which would be creating a National Day song and submitting it to Sing Singapore. My dad told me, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Well from that it would seem a less difficult step to capture the coverage of our song. In any case Hongrui, Ben Low, Bryan and me would be working very hard to create a song that would reach out to you younger generation, and older generations. Much easier said than done, of course. But we will do our best!
With that, I end my reflections of 2007 and goals of 2008.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Someone's dead today...
Well I was pretty shocked by the news of the assasination of ex-president and current opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. It does really seem to be a matter of time, only when it really happens that matters. My dad did mention about the possible assasination of Bhutto, and who knows, with military-powered countries such as Pakistan and Thailand, the next person dead might just be Thaksin.
We shall see.
I have always been a strong advocate of proper and fair elections (I guess everyone is, until it is time to let go of one's power when one loses in an election). So it is no wonder that I have never been in favour of President Musharraff's government, simply because he engaged in a bloodless coup and took over the government of 1999. Here's a photo of him here. He looks like a baby though.
Anyway, recently we all know the PPP won the elections in Thailand, and it would soon be a matter of time once again before the army takes over the government in a coup, regardless of whether there's blood or none, and the General will take over as Prime Minister.
And we will be back to Square 1.
I suppose we should all be thankful to live in peaceful countries, be it Singapore, Sweden, Hong Kong, Tibet, Switzerland, Canada etc. Meanwhile I am sure we should be thankful to our forefathers and the PAP for doing a good job thus far of leading us till today. Although there are increasingly more opposition supporters out there in the younger generations, I feel it is better to live under a security blanket that does not stifle our needs of entertainment and livelihood.
We shall see.
I have always been a strong advocate of proper and fair elections (I guess everyone is, until it is time to let go of one's power when one loses in an election). So it is no wonder that I have never been in favour of President Musharraff's government, simply because he engaged in a bloodless coup and took over the government of 1999. Here's a photo of him here. He looks like a baby though.
Anyway, recently we all know the PPP won the elections in Thailand, and it would soon be a matter of time once again before the army takes over the government in a coup, regardless of whether there's blood or none, and the General will take over as Prime Minister.
And we will be back to Square 1.
I suppose we should all be thankful to live in peaceful countries, be it Singapore, Sweden, Hong Kong, Tibet, Switzerland, Canada etc. Meanwhile I am sure we should be thankful to our forefathers and the PAP for doing a good job thus far of leading us till today. Although there are increasingly more opposition supporters out there in the younger generations, I feel it is better to live under a security blanket that does not stifle our needs of entertainment and livelihood.
Some music albums
I found a couple of treasures in the storeroom. They were without doubt, musical treasures, and scores that I never thought I ever had. Well, most of them were elementary (I realised they were my cousin's) but it soon dawned on me that if used them properly these music would most definitely do benefit to my wrists.
The sonatina album that I found contained sonatinas from Haydn, Mozart and Kullau that would greatly improve my awareness of articulation and use of wrists.
The sonatina album that I found contained sonatinas from Haydn, Mozart and Kullau that would greatly improve my awareness of articulation and use of wrists.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
RE year next year
Afternoon friends,
It is Christmas, the only time of the year you get to spend 24 hours with all family around. Just kidding. But there's simply...more kick in it.
Anyway it feels good, lah. Simply cannot wait for the RE year to start, because I really want our National Day song to get selected onto Sing Singapore and be featured on National Day!
Well in order to achieve that I borrowed books on Music Production. And Bach's Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.
See you all next year!
It is Christmas, the only time of the year you get to spend 24 hours with all family around. Just kidding. But there's simply...more kick in it.
Anyway it feels good, lah. Simply cannot wait for the RE year to start, because I really want our National Day song to get selected onto Sing Singapore and be featured on National Day!
Well in order to achieve that I borrowed books on Music Production. And Bach's Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.
See you all next year!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Christmas is Coming...
Is a two day hiatus a big deal for my readers? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Anyway I decided to take a break mainly because I was preoccupied with MSNing and practising piano, and come the time I started writing the first few paragraphs of my blogpost, a family member would swoop down to this chair and play a game of solitaire. Or two.
Taking this opportunity of my mother sleeping and my dad had work, I've decided to thus blog.
Christmas is coming! As usual the house does not have any Christmas trees around, no presents, no merry greetings, just the usual all-in-a-day's work. So it isn't really a big matter in the Shin household. I can remember clearly though, back in the early 2000s, where for the first time I was not in bed by 1am, simply because we went to Church for celebrations. This had led me to be so excited that I was begging not to sleep for the entire night so I could proudly acclaim that I had not slept for 24 hours (yippee). But of course I was put to sleep by natural causes.
I have spent my December month (the thought of it makes me think about school) reading The Importance of Being Earnest, and I think it is a fantastic play by a fantastic author, Oscar Wilde.
Shall update more later at night
Anyway I decided to take a break mainly because I was preoccupied with MSNing and practising piano, and come the time I started writing the first few paragraphs of my blogpost, a family member would swoop down to this chair and play a game of solitaire. Or two.
Taking this opportunity of my mother sleeping and my dad had work, I've decided to thus blog.
Christmas is coming! As usual the house does not have any Christmas trees around, no presents, no merry greetings, just the usual all-in-a-day's work. So it isn't really a big matter in the Shin household. I can remember clearly though, back in the early 2000s, where for the first time I was not in bed by 1am, simply because we went to Church for celebrations. This had led me to be so excited that I was begging not to sleep for the entire night so I could proudly acclaim that I had not slept for 24 hours (yippee). But of course I was put to sleep by natural causes.
I have spent my December month (the thought of it makes me think about school) reading The Importance of Being Earnest, and I think it is a fantastic play by a fantastic author, Oscar Wilde.
Shall update more later at night
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Good evening mehderm, here's a dose of Singapore realism
As I sat in front of my computer doing Math homework today (and reading The Importance of Being Earnest), the faulty doorbell rang several times, the main reason being it was faulty.
Anyway for all the times it rang the door was rarely opened, because my mum has always been paranoid about intruders and 'magicians'.
About 'magicians', I'm not really sure who they are, because I have only heard from her past experiences that these people come to your door and then - as she always says, "come and magick you ah I tell you".
Followed by something about them making you give them all your money without you even knowing, and when you wake up (after being unconscious), you will find your savings and all your hard-earned money gone. Pardon me, I've never heard of any such case of non-contact assault. But anyway with the recent spate of house robberies by forced entry, I believe this paranoia is reasonable.
But honestly, I feel this paranoia has absolutely no connection to the spates of attacks that have been present here in our relatively low-crime country of Singapore. That is because even before these attacks have had any significant spike, she has been refusing to open doors. This has caused her to nearly miss some of the postman's mail, like the one that had a video tape of me playing the triangle with some of my music friends and an Australian man acting as Mr Whiskers at VCH more than 5 years ago.
Yesterday the doorbell rang (again!) but well because my mum was on the phone she hurried to open the door thinking it was the postman. The simple reason being?
The man knocked so hard on the door it had got to be the postman.
And she hurried to open the door, only to find out it was a salesman (oh no, it's a bad guy) and then proceeded to apply her entire body frame upon the door, which had a pretty strong resistance and had a terribly heavy weight. Regardless of the weight of the door, she managed to produce such a huge 'bang' that I'm sure she had commited non-contact assault, causing the salesman to collaspe upon the floor. But it didn't happen (at least when I looked at the corridor outside later).
In any case I thought it was utterly rude but did not proceed to give my mum a piece of my mind as she wouldn't be bothered to give me 2 cents. Not just that but I thought she had her reasons for doing that, though I was sure that the salesman had a terrible shock.
Imagine if you were that salesman...
(KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK)
(Door opens)
Salesman: (Oh yes I got a customer so quickly!) - [That's because I live on the top floor and salesmen always start from the top. Hope I don't have to explain why!]
Mum: (Opens door for 2 seconds)
Salesman: Good evening mehderm-
Mum: :O (Slams door)
Salesman: (faints)/kcuf!
A dose of Singaporean realism for you!
Anyway for all the times it rang the door was rarely opened, because my mum has always been paranoid about intruders and 'magicians'.
About 'magicians', I'm not really sure who they are, because I have only heard from her past experiences that these people come to your door and then - as she always says, "come and magick you ah I tell you".
Followed by something about them making you give them all your money without you even knowing, and when you wake up (after being unconscious), you will find your savings and all your hard-earned money gone. Pardon me, I've never heard of any such case of non-contact assault. But anyway with the recent spate of house robberies by forced entry, I believe this paranoia is reasonable.
But honestly, I feel this paranoia has absolutely no connection to the spates of attacks that have been present here in our relatively low-crime country of Singapore. That is because even before these attacks have had any significant spike, she has been refusing to open doors. This has caused her to nearly miss some of the postman's mail, like the one that had a video tape of me playing the triangle with some of my music friends and an Australian man acting as Mr Whiskers at VCH more than 5 years ago.
Yesterday the doorbell rang (again!) but well because my mum was on the phone she hurried to open the door thinking it was the postman. The simple reason being?
The man knocked so hard on the door it had got to be the postman.
And she hurried to open the door, only to find out it was a salesman (oh no, it's a bad guy) and then proceeded to apply her entire body frame upon the door, which had a pretty strong resistance and had a terribly heavy weight. Regardless of the weight of the door, she managed to produce such a huge 'bang' that I'm sure she had commited non-contact assault, causing the salesman to collaspe upon the floor. But it didn't happen (at least when I looked at the corridor outside later).
In any case I thought it was utterly rude but did not proceed to give my mum a piece of my mind as she wouldn't be bothered to give me 2 cents. Not just that but I thought she had her reasons for doing that, though I was sure that the salesman had a terrible shock.
Imagine if you were that salesman...
(KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK)
(Door opens)
Salesman: (Oh yes I got a customer so quickly!) - [That's because I live on the top floor and salesmen always start from the top. Hope I don't have to explain why!]
Mum: (Opens door for 2 seconds)
Salesman: Good evening mehderm-
Mum: :O (Slams door)
Salesman: (faints)/kcuf!
A dose of Singaporean realism for you!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Blog Quiz #2
Here's a quiz that I have been tagged to do for a second time in my life. First was from Fiona. Here's one from Andrew, who did the quiz today and unfortunately lost a bet with himself that no one of the five names he stated would do this blog quiz. But I did. Presenting to you...
Blog Quiz #2
Favourites...
Colour: Yellow, previously Blue. Here's the kind of yellow I like.
(Website I got picture from - http://www.tikkurila.com/index.jsp?cid=feelings_colours)
Food: Homecook Curry with vegetables, Good dumplings, prawn coated with egg yolk, Not-too-oily Hor Fun. Chee Cheong Fun.
Movie: Shooter, Lord of the Rings, The Pianist, A Hard Day's Night (1969)
Sport: Soccer, Badminton, Around the World in 80 Days on the Keyboard
Day: Everyday is my favourite day...you should treasure your life every single day while you can. Saturday is a day where I can balance out my time, practise piano and relax at the same time though.
Season: Soccer season yes, but autumn is my season...
Ice-cream: Milo ice-cream for 50c, peppermint ice-cream from Orchard Road stall vendors
Current...
Mood: Default Happy...Haha!
Clothes: Currently in washing machine. Erm, a striped white and brown polo T-shirt with 3 buttons
Desktop:
(Windows Vista)
Time: 5.23pm
Surrounding: Neat study room thanks to my Dad. A book analysing Beatles music set upon the printer on my right, a box containing my mp3 items, under it some manuscript paper, purple programme booklet for NYSE Belle Musique, a book by Gerig - Famous Pianists & Their Technique, The Origin of Tolkien's Middle-Earth for Dummies, some more manuscript paper.
On my left, a newspaper article on U.S. Foreign Policy, under it a book of 1473 jokes, under it my Sony Discman, a pen, the telephone, my pencilbox, my Tango Op. 1, some math tuition work.
In front of me a huge stick-up board of RISE Rehearsals, contacts of my colleague at YST, music books to borrow from the library, table of Fines at YST, NUS Library Application, and lastly a timetable of this year's EOYs for Sec 3.
Behind me stacks of clothing as you always see in my webcam shots. An ironing board diagonally right of me facing my back, and on my left 4 stacks of this year's school work all reaching heights of 35cm.
Firsts...
Best Friend: Primary 1 boy called Eugene. Can still remember his face, but not his surname.
Movie: Dinosaurs, first movie I watched with my Dad at Bukit Batok. Animated film by Disney
Crush: Sec 3 now in RGS unnamed whom I met in Primary School
Music I played: J.J Thompson Red Book for Beginners
Lasts...
Drink: Hot Milk+Milo
Car Ride: Quite some time ago. I'm really taking public transport nowadays...
Crush: No geniune one except for one in Sec 2 from NY
CD Played: Installing the scanner into my new laptop. Other than that, Bach's Preludes and Fugues given to me by Dr. Chang Tou Liang after my 2005 performance at Esplanade.
Have You Ever...
Dated one of your best friends?
I have never ever dated. Like, been to a dinner, gathering, party, one-one with a girl before. Well, who's first?
Broken the law?
Eating and Drinking in the MRT. Oh look someone just spilled his chocolate drink!
Been arrested?
No, and will try not to get arrested ever. If I do though it will be practising piano at 3am and police knocking on thy black door and me refusing to stop.
Random
5 things you're good at (in no order of merit):
1. Hearing 5 seconds of a Beatles piece and being able to tell the title
2. Acting really stupid when the time calls for it
3. Listening to different notes in a chord and being able to tell what creates such a mood and harmony. (I think it's a skill though...having a good ear is important when playing pieces with diverse harmonies. Dr. Hecht is best at this I think)
4. Listening to what people say and empathizing with them.
5. Removing a musical block when it comes to writing a song. Sometimes it's just plain luck though, when you manage to come up with a new chord that fits the music.
4 things you've done today:
1. Played major, harmonic minor and melodic minor - contrary motion and similar motion of all keys.
2. Blogged.
3. Playing a pirate game from addictinggames.com
4. Creating the melody and the harmonies for Nothing Girl after 3 months
3 things you hear right now:
1. Channel 8 show at 5.30pm
2. Cars at a highway 1km away running over puddles of water
3. Utensils hitting against each other. My mum's eating...
2 things you'll probably never do:
1. Date someone out! Lol
2. Not compose a full-length opera
1 thing you seriously regret doing:
I have no regrets!
5 people to tag:
Before I tag these people, I wish to sincerely apologise.
1. Fiona - cos she tagged me last time
2. Laura - knew her recently
3. John Lee
4. David Ng
5. The Straight Times
Blog Quiz #2
Favourites...
Colour: Yellow, previously Blue. Here's the kind of yellow I like.
(Website I got picture from - http://www.tikkurila.com/index.jsp?cid=feelings_colours)
Food: Homecook Curry with vegetables, Good dumplings, prawn coated with egg yolk, Not-too-oily Hor Fun. Chee Cheong Fun.
Movie: Shooter, Lord of the Rings, The Pianist, A Hard Day's Night (1969)
Sport: Soccer, Badminton, Around the World in 80 Days on the Keyboard
Day: Everyday is my favourite day...you should treasure your life every single day while you can. Saturday is a day where I can balance out my time, practise piano and relax at the same time though.
Season: Soccer season yes, but autumn is my season...
Ice-cream: Milo ice-cream for 50c, peppermint ice-cream from Orchard Road stall vendors
Current...
Mood: Default Happy...Haha!
Clothes: Currently in washing machine. Erm, a striped white and brown polo T-shirt with 3 buttons
Desktop:
(Windows Vista)
Time: 5.23pm
Surrounding: Neat study room thanks to my Dad. A book analysing Beatles music set upon the printer on my right, a box containing my mp3 items, under it some manuscript paper, purple programme booklet for NYSE Belle Musique, a book by Gerig - Famous Pianists & Their Technique, The Origin of Tolkien's Middle-Earth for Dummies, some more manuscript paper.
On my left, a newspaper article on U.S. Foreign Policy, under it a book of 1473 jokes, under it my Sony Discman, a pen, the telephone, my pencilbox, my Tango Op. 1, some math tuition work.
In front of me a huge stick-up board of RISE Rehearsals, contacts of my colleague at YST, music books to borrow from the library, table of Fines at YST, NUS Library Application, and lastly a timetable of this year's EOYs for Sec 3.
Behind me stacks of clothing as you always see in my webcam shots. An ironing board diagonally right of me facing my back, and on my left 4 stacks of this year's school work all reaching heights of 35cm.
Firsts...
Best Friend: Primary 1 boy called Eugene. Can still remember his face, but not his surname.
Movie: Dinosaurs, first movie I watched with my Dad at Bukit Batok. Animated film by Disney
Crush: Sec 3 now in RGS unnamed whom I met in Primary School
Music I played: J.J Thompson Red Book for Beginners
Lasts...
Drink: Hot Milk+Milo
Car Ride: Quite some time ago. I'm really taking public transport nowadays...
Crush: No geniune one except for one in Sec 2 from NY
CD Played: Installing the scanner into my new laptop. Other than that, Bach's Preludes and Fugues given to me by Dr. Chang Tou Liang after my 2005 performance at Esplanade.
Have You Ever...
Dated one of your best friends?
I have never ever dated. Like, been to a dinner, gathering, party, one-one with a girl before. Well, who's first?
Broken the law?
Eating and Drinking in the MRT. Oh look someone just spilled his chocolate drink!
Been arrested?
No, and will try not to get arrested ever. If I do though it will be practising piano at 3am and police knocking on thy black door and me refusing to stop.
Random
5 things you're good at (in no order of merit):
1. Hearing 5 seconds of a Beatles piece and being able to tell the title
2. Acting really stupid when the time calls for it
3. Listening to different notes in a chord and being able to tell what creates such a mood and harmony. (I think it's a skill though...having a good ear is important when playing pieces with diverse harmonies. Dr. Hecht is best at this I think)
4. Listening to what people say and empathizing with them.
5. Removing a musical block when it comes to writing a song. Sometimes it's just plain luck though, when you manage to come up with a new chord that fits the music.
4 things you've done today:
1. Played major, harmonic minor and melodic minor - contrary motion and similar motion of all keys.
2. Blogged.
3. Playing a pirate game from addictinggames.com
4. Creating the melody and the harmonies for Nothing Girl after 3 months
3 things you hear right now:
1. Channel 8 show at 5.30pm
2. Cars at a highway 1km away running over puddles of water
3. Utensils hitting against each other. My mum's eating...
2 things you'll probably never do:
1. Date someone out! Lol
2. Not compose a full-length opera
1 thing you seriously regret doing:
I have no regrets!
5 people to tag:
Before I tag these people, I wish to sincerely apologise.
1. Fiona - cos she tagged me last time
2. Laura - knew her recently
3. John Lee
4. David Ng
5. The Straight Times
Surprise, surprise - From Singapore to America
And all of Singapore shall chorus in one loud jubliant (and surprised) chord -
HADY MIRZA WON! (?)
I caught the first performance night 'live' the day before yesterday, and I was feeling neutral about it, because firstly I wasn't going to vote anytime, and secondly I was thinking - with Indonesia having a population of 214 million, and Singapore 50 times less, how are we going to win? Apparently you are allowed to vote for two countries in one SMS, and this morning the Strait Times wrote that this (ruling) "ensured a level playing field for countries with smaller populations". But it turned out to be a deciding factor, because Singapore won nonetheless.
Maybe they meant this was to ensure a level playing field for countries with fewer televisions to watch and know the voting phone numbers.
Here's a video of the results-announcement, and his reaction. And finally, some sing-song from the winner himself.
[Watch him get smaller for a few seconds at 0.15 and then collaspe on the floor of nearly 20 seconds. (Strait Times said it was a full minute. First time I've seen them blow up a number!)]
Well of course as a Singaporean I do feel proud about it but really, Hady was a dark horse in the competition, and he beat favourites lke Mike Mohede from Indonesia and Jaclyn Victor from Malaysia. That's for deforestation and racial riots respectively.
And on to some news from the Soccer World, Manchester United beat Liverpool 1-0 and Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0. So it is starting to look like a two-horse race once again, to the disappointment of Liverpudlians and the Blues.
Lastly, here's something from mrbrown.com and youtube.com that would make you cringe.
DUMB BLONDES ARE A MYTH, REALLY
I mean, I have heard about the level of ignorance of the world around them by friends and some videos on Youtube.com, but it was shown clearly to all the world how dumb some people can be. If you watched closely you can actually see how much laughter the gameshow host had to suppressed just listening to her questions. Well, life's unfair.
However I believe the majority of them are not as dumb as this girl. Well, most of them have probably been enlisted into the CIA.
HADY MIRZA WON! (?)
I caught the first performance night 'live' the day before yesterday, and I was feeling neutral about it, because firstly I wasn't going to vote anytime, and secondly I was thinking - with Indonesia having a population of 214 million, and Singapore 50 times less, how are we going to win? Apparently you are allowed to vote for two countries in one SMS, and this morning the Strait Times wrote that this (ruling) "ensured a level playing field for countries with smaller populations". But it turned out to be a deciding factor, because Singapore won nonetheless.
Maybe they meant this was to ensure a level playing field for countries with fewer televisions to watch and know the voting phone numbers.
Here's a video of the results-announcement, and his reaction. And finally, some sing-song from the winner himself.
[Watch him get smaller for a few seconds at 0.15 and then collaspe on the floor of nearly 20 seconds. (Strait Times said it was a full minute. First time I've seen them blow up a number!)]
Well of course as a Singaporean I do feel proud about it but really, Hady was a dark horse in the competition, and he beat favourites lke Mike Mohede from Indonesia and Jaclyn Victor from Malaysia. That's for deforestation and racial riots respectively.
And on to some news from the Soccer World, Manchester United beat Liverpool 1-0 and Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0. So it is starting to look like a two-horse race once again, to the disappointment of Liverpudlians and the Blues.
Lastly, here's something from mrbrown.com and youtube.com that would make you cringe.
DUMB BLONDES ARE A MYTH, REALLY
I mean, I have heard about the level of ignorance of the world around them by friends and some videos on Youtube.com, but it was shown clearly to all the world how dumb some people can be. If you watched closely you can actually see how much laughter the gameshow host had to suppressed just listening to her questions. Well, life's unfair.
However I believe the majority of them are not as dumb as this girl. Well, most of them have probably been enlisted into the CIA.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Are parents aware of their teens?
I am back. Now armed with a scanner to add to my blogging arsenal. What I need next, is a digital camera that I am allowed to bring outside without asking for permission. And connect to my new laptop. But looking at the clumsy person that I am, ("Hey hi! So how's li..*bang*") my mum and I have reached a consensus that it isn't safe for me to bring the camera out. No deal signed, but it's understood.
Alright this morning I was pointed out to a newspaper article by my dad from the Sunday Times. It relates to me in terms of age, but considering my lifestyle, man, it's far from me. So here's the newspaper article for you lazy bums bilge rats. Aye!
(Click on image to enlarge) Sunday Times, gen y, page 40
Anyway I'm 100% sure that I wouldn't be in any party, booze or no booze, gays or no gays, girls or no girls, in the next 10 years of my life. I'm too career-orientated to attend any party, be it class gathering (which I have not been to a single one since primary school) or anything that involves chalet or overnight stay.
To start, I am very sure from my life experience that it depends on self-discipline. Know your priorities, know your purpose of going to the party, and understand that there is a limit to everything. The reason why I have not been to a single party is mainly because of restrictions from above, but my dad and I know my priorities.
In any case, one must understand that yes, there is a time to play, and there is a time to be serious. I'm not speaking from a view point of a religious person in any way, but I'm simply taking the position of a sensible person. If you know that after consuming alcohol, you're unlikely to have control of your own senses, then don't consume any! I once had an harrowing experience of really being egged on to smoke - that was after my performance for the Cancer Society at Singapore Conference Hall. There was a barbecue a week later, and during the barbecue I was egged on by three people to smoke because they offered me one. And the rest of the people were hardly doing anything to persuade me not to! Well I didn't take the smoke in the end, otherwise I believe my life will be crap now.
The newspaper article rightly points some of the blame to the parents, and indeed, it is the parents that should be clicking with their child, and have a close relationship with their teen. Here's a quote from Mr Gn Chiang Tat, Youth Guidance Outreach Services programme director.
"If the teen is looking for some way of release, and if he doesn't have a close relationship with his mum and dad, what's going to stop him from smoking, drinking, having sex and consuming drugs behind their backs?"
The parents play a very important part in guiding their child in terms of education, socialising, and discipline. Parents should already be more aware of their child's behavior, and definitely be in charge of their upbringing. Of course, the teens themselves really have to be in control and have a sense of self-discipline. Being teens, it will only be a few years before they go into the working world already, where one has to act and think maturely.
There was also mention of the amount of freedom a parent should give to a child - freedom, I feel, in this case, should be considered a privilege by the teen. There must be a substantial amount of control from the parents, so much so that over a long period of time, the teen is instilled a sense of discipline, and knows what is accessible and what is not.
Summing it up, it's really up to the teen's self-discipline! And of course some parental guidance.
My dad is really getting nervous about tonight's football games. Here's something I remembered a few days back. My dad returned home from an examination on a course he signed up on. The night before, he asked to borrow a couple of stationary. So there was the pencil, the pen, the correction tape, the eraser, and not forgetting the ruler. He did his exam the next day, and when he came back home, he took out the pencil case, and then the correction tape.
So he proceeded to say, "How does this thing work? I tried holding it like this (holds it awkwardly, gripping it like a handshake) and like this (turns it over this time, upside-down) but I still couldn't apply it on paper!"
"Did you take of the cap?"
"Yes I did!"
"Show me how you did it dad"
"(Grips the tape on the correct side, proceeds to press it on the paper, but no tape came out) Sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't. What's the problem?"
"Dad, it's like this. (Proceeds to hold it correctly and easily pulls it across the paper)"
":O oh..."
We do learn new things everyday! My dad hasn't been in touch with correction tapes simply because he, like me, has learnt the art of cancelling.
Here's cheers to the end of another day.
Alright this morning I was pointed out to a newspaper article by my dad from the Sunday Times. It relates to me in terms of age, but considering my lifestyle, man, it's far from me. So here's the newspaper article for you lazy bums bilge rats. Aye!
(Click on image to enlarge) Sunday Times, gen y, page 40
Anyway I'm 100% sure that I wouldn't be in any party, booze or no booze, gays or no gays, girls or no girls, in the next 10 years of my life. I'm too career-orientated to attend any party, be it class gathering (which I have not been to a single one since primary school) or anything that involves chalet or overnight stay.
To start, I am very sure from my life experience that it depends on self-discipline. Know your priorities, know your purpose of going to the party, and understand that there is a limit to everything. The reason why I have not been to a single party is mainly because of restrictions from above, but my dad and I know my priorities.
In any case, one must understand that yes, there is a time to play, and there is a time to be serious. I'm not speaking from a view point of a religious person in any way, but I'm simply taking the position of a sensible person. If you know that after consuming alcohol, you're unlikely to have control of your own senses, then don't consume any! I once had an harrowing experience of really being egged on to smoke - that was after my performance for the Cancer Society at Singapore Conference Hall. There was a barbecue a week later, and during the barbecue I was egged on by three people to smoke because they offered me one. And the rest of the people were hardly doing anything to persuade me not to! Well I didn't take the smoke in the end, otherwise I believe my life will be crap now.
The newspaper article rightly points some of the blame to the parents, and indeed, it is the parents that should be clicking with their child, and have a close relationship with their teen. Here's a quote from Mr Gn Chiang Tat, Youth Guidance Outreach Services programme director.
"If the teen is looking for some way of release, and if he doesn't have a close relationship with his mum and dad, what's going to stop him from smoking, drinking, having sex and consuming drugs behind their backs?"
The parents play a very important part in guiding their child in terms of education, socialising, and discipline. Parents should already be more aware of their child's behavior, and definitely be in charge of their upbringing. Of course, the teens themselves really have to be in control and have a sense of self-discipline. Being teens, it will only be a few years before they go into the working world already, where one has to act and think maturely.
There was also mention of the amount of freedom a parent should give to a child - freedom, I feel, in this case, should be considered a privilege by the teen. There must be a substantial amount of control from the parents, so much so that over a long period of time, the teen is instilled a sense of discipline, and knows what is accessible and what is not.
Summing it up, it's really up to the teen's self-discipline! And of course some parental guidance.
My dad is really getting nervous about tonight's football games. Here's something I remembered a few days back. My dad returned home from an examination on a course he signed up on. The night before, he asked to borrow a couple of stationary. So there was the pencil, the pen, the correction tape, the eraser, and not forgetting the ruler. He did his exam the next day, and when he came back home, he took out the pencil case, and then the correction tape.
So he proceeded to say, "How does this thing work? I tried holding it like this (holds it awkwardly, gripping it like a handshake) and like this (turns it over this time, upside-down) but I still couldn't apply it on paper!"
"Did you take of the cap?"
"Yes I did!"
"Show me how you did it dad"
"(Grips the tape on the correct side, proceeds to press it on the paper, but no tape came out) Sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't. What's the problem?"
"Dad, it's like this. (Proceeds to hold it correctly and easily pulls it across the paper)"
":O oh..."
We do learn new things everyday! My dad hasn't been in touch with correction tapes simply because he, like me, has learnt the art of cancelling.
Here's cheers to the end of another day.
The Existence of Conference Calls
I remember when I was in Primary 5 I had this Math teacher who was really inspiring, and up till today I still remember his name. For the simple reason of being so significant in my education of the mathematics and discipline.
But no worries, this isn't going to be a blogpost remembering the past, where I lived in Bukit Batok and ate soil (plant one, lah). This is a blogpost commemorating a phrase he (Mr Raymond Lee Chen Cher, my Primary 5 Math teacher) once said - "Everytime you step out of the class door, ask yourselves - have you'll learnt anything new today?"
And following that I can still remember that phrase, and will probably remind myself about it every once a week. In Secondary 1, everytime I stepped out of the door, I learnt nothing except for beastly sounds coming from the back of the classroom (of which I still smile when I do think about it. That is, when I DO), a few lessons of understanding your physical self, from head to toe, and nothing more. But well, I did scrape through my first year.
Secondary 2 was more advanced, we did actual study. And then we really did actual education like Chinese, Math, English, Literature (where we had a teacher who was most of the time adding sexual innuendos every 5 minutes or so)...and we had Science, the norms. So everyday we had to learn something new. And during the holidays, I learn new things also. Mostly spelling and grammar corrections that I never knew existed (mostly from latest tagger from the time of this post, Fiona) and a couple of new proper words...But this morning was really cool, because I learnt something!
I learnt that conference calls existed!
Wow. Alright this isn't really such a revelation for people like you because you people are already using, what, conferencing MSNing. And I'm still stuck on hey-pass-me-the-vinyl-record mindset. Well that's something new I learnt yesterday. And I just realised that people actually talked at what, 1am. Until 3am. Surprises happen everyday.
And now, for soccer fans out there, tomorrow morning is the BIG DAY! It's Liverpool-Manchester United and Arsenal-Chelsea. As a supporter of Arsenal, I know Arsenal will win! 3/1 Abedayor to score! I want Liverpool and Arsenal to win today. That's because I hate Manchester United to win.
...
I have to stop now because I have to restart the computer before my scanner can work. So that you guys will get news articles to read directly from my blog!
But no worries, this isn't going to be a blogpost remembering the past, where I lived in Bukit Batok and ate soil (plant one, lah). This is a blogpost commemorating a phrase he (Mr Raymond Lee Chen Cher, my Primary 5 Math teacher) once said - "Everytime you step out of the class door, ask yourselves - have you'll learnt anything new today?"
And following that I can still remember that phrase, and will probably remind myself about it every once a week. In Secondary 1, everytime I stepped out of the door, I learnt nothing except for beastly sounds coming from the back of the classroom (of which I still smile when I do think about it. That is, when I DO), a few lessons of understanding your physical self, from head to toe, and nothing more. But well, I did scrape through my first year.
Secondary 2 was more advanced, we did actual study. And then we really did actual education like Chinese, Math, English, Literature (where we had a teacher who was most of the time adding sexual innuendos every 5 minutes or so)...and we had Science, the norms. So everyday we had to learn something new. And during the holidays, I learn new things also. Mostly spelling and grammar corrections that I never knew existed (mostly from latest tagger from the time of this post, Fiona) and a couple of new proper words...But this morning was really cool, because I learnt something!
I learnt that conference calls existed!
Wow. Alright this isn't really such a revelation for people like you because you people are already using, what, conferencing MSNing. And I'm still stuck on hey-pass-me-the-vinyl-record mindset. Well that's something new I learnt yesterday. And I just realised that people actually talked at what, 1am. Until 3am. Surprises happen everyday.
And now, for soccer fans out there, tomorrow morning is the BIG DAY! It's Liverpool-Manchester United and Arsenal-Chelsea. As a supporter of Arsenal, I know Arsenal will win! 3/1 Abedayor to score! I want Liverpool and Arsenal to win today. That's because I hate Manchester United to win.
...
I have to stop now because I have to restart the computer before my scanner can work. So that you guys will get news articles to read directly from my blog!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Finale (Competition, not Programme)
All the results of the National Piano and Violin Competition have been announced, and this has definitely gotten musicians all over Singapore on their feet and looking at who's top and who's not.
Yesterday's Piano Artist Finals added with a bang as Wang Haijie played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in Bb - technically flawless (like all Chinese pianists) but lacking in emotional subtleness. For all three performances it was easy to note that the orchestra was not in sync with the pianist, and it got very irritating when it came to Grieg; Shih-wei had finished a run up the keyboard, but was waiting for the orchestra to play the finishing note, he had to pause at the key for what a second (which was obvious enough).
But anyway I was told by my colleague sitting beside me that each pianist was given only two rehearsals with the orchestra, so that might have been the cause of the un-syncness. (Sometimes one's got to create words to fit the situation)
After all the talking, here are the results of the Piano Artist Finals:
1st Prize: Wang Haijie(Tchaikovsky Concerto in Bb)
2nd Prize: Andre Kwon Cheo Yong (Mozart Concerto in D)
3rd Prize: Cheng Shih-wei (Grieg Concerto in A)
The results looked pretty obvious, but I was hoping Andre tied it with Haijie at the top! When he came out from backstage, he looked soo like a 30-year-old concert pianist with a tailcoat and 30 years of piano experience. He played his Mozart so well, and he was good in his own right (with his Mozart) but unfortunately composer to composer, period to period, Mozart was not in comparison with Tchaikovsky.
So it was the choice of piece ultimately.
The Competition OFFICIALLY ends at 5pm today, with the last piano masterclass ending at 5pm. But as we all know masterclasses end late ALWAYS, and I estimate it to be 5.20. :)
This entire competition event has led me to several thoughts, like regretting the fact that I didn't participate but I was too busy. And that when I was participating these 15 days felt like 1 month, because it was so tiring practising nearly 6 hours a day. (two years back, that is) And the days felt so draggy because basically you weren't doing anything except for practise, eat, sleep.
I was pretty nervous also, but playing piano is all about being self-aware and listening, which can basically sum up from the start of the piece as putting pressure on the key, listening, being self-aware, and then preparing the next note, put pressure, listen, prepare and so on and so forth.
So the next time I'm posting, there will be no more mention about the NPVC already, because even I am feeling fatigue from the pressure of keeping up with the Competition. :X
Yesterday's Piano Artist Finals added with a bang as Wang Haijie played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in Bb - technically flawless (like all Chinese pianists) but lacking in emotional subtleness. For all three performances it was easy to note that the orchestra was not in sync with the pianist, and it got very irritating when it came to Grieg; Shih-wei had finished a run up the keyboard, but was waiting for the orchestra to play the finishing note, he had to pause at the key for what a second (which was obvious enough).
But anyway I was told by my colleague sitting beside me that each pianist was given only two rehearsals with the orchestra, so that might have been the cause of the un-syncness. (Sometimes one's got to create words to fit the situation)
After all the talking, here are the results of the Piano Artist Finals:
1st Prize: Wang Haijie(Tchaikovsky Concerto in Bb)
2nd Prize: Andre Kwon Cheo Yong (Mozart Concerto in D)
3rd Prize: Cheng Shih-wei (Grieg Concerto in A)
The results looked pretty obvious, but I was hoping Andre tied it with Haijie at the top! When he came out from backstage, he looked soo like a 30-year-old concert pianist with a tailcoat and 30 years of piano experience. He played his Mozart so well, and he was good in his own right (with his Mozart) but unfortunately composer to composer, period to period, Mozart was not in comparison with Tchaikovsky.
So it was the choice of piece ultimately.
The Competition OFFICIALLY ends at 5pm today, with the last piano masterclass ending at 5pm. But as we all know masterclasses end late ALWAYS, and I estimate it to be 5.20. :)
This entire competition event has led me to several thoughts, like regretting the fact that I didn't participate but I was too busy. And that when I was participating these 15 days felt like 1 month, because it was so tiring practising nearly 6 hours a day. (two years back, that is) And the days felt so draggy because basically you weren't doing anything except for practise, eat, sleep.
I was pretty nervous also, but playing piano is all about being self-aware and listening, which can basically sum up from the start of the piece as putting pressure on the key, listening, being self-aware, and then preparing the next note, put pressure, listen, prepare and so on and so forth.
So the next time I'm posting, there will be no more mention about the NPVC already, because even I am feeling fatigue from the pressure of keeping up with the Competition. :X
Thursday, December 13, 2007
NPVC Main Bulk ends
The main bulk of NPVC has ended - the final rounds of Junior, Intermediate, Senior ended yesterday at about 6.00. Here are the results of Intermediate:
1st Prize: Zhang Aidi
2nd Prize: Soh Ser Yee
3rd Prize: Wilford
There was not much change in my predictions except that I though Ser Yee's brother would get second. But to be fair I did not watch much of the Intermediate category and I was not sure what the results would be, but I guessed the results on the basis that I know all of them and their playing.
Here are the results of Senior:
1st Prize: NA
2nd Prize: Royce
3rd Prize: Jin Yujia
Honorable Mention: Shawn Neo
I know everyone here, but I am surprised at the results. While on the bus trip back home though, I gave it a thought and I realised that the judges were right.
Shawn's variety in his Chopin Concerto was little, and although he did so well in the lyrical department, there was not enough showcase of his octane department. To put it in short, we did not see enough of his technique in this concerto. Besides, this piece does not really show much of his ability to 'play with the orchestra'
The reason why Yujia (Grieg Concerto in A) didn't get top, I reckoned, was probably because of either the age concern, or the lack of variety again. There was a huge show of technical runs, but the melodious parts were not, in entirely my own opinion, not distinct enough.
Royce (Scriabin Concerto in F# minor) feautured good coordination with his accompanist, but probably it was this extra effort to simultaneously (maybe overly) replicate every action that was a plus point. I noticed a good balance of both lyrical and technical playing in his piece. But ultimately he was not spared - some of the pedalling was overdone and I could hardly hear the runs up and down the keyboard that were evident throughout the piece.
Some of the costumes of the day were terribly dull, like Yujia's. Come on, she wore white for all her concerts and all the rounds of this year's competition and the competition two years back.
Ultimately it was a feeling of deja vu when I heard there was no first prize. Urgh.
Mothers have been making logical fallacies - mainly post hoc - Post hoc ergo propter hoc. (Rafflesians should know this) For example, because of Yujia wearing the same costume always, she didn't win top. And many more. Why not because I didn't go to the restroom in the final category, no one got first. It gets irritating after while, but we all know that there is no proof. It's stupid, lah.
Tomorrow will be a so-interesting day, mainly because we will be treated to a showdown between two YST students and one NAFA student in the Final round of the Artist Category.
Andre (Cheo Yong) will be playing Mozart Concerto - the one he played with Dewi. Shih Wei will be playing Grieg Concerto, and Weijie from NAFA will be playing Tchaikovsky Concerto - yes, the famous one. And so I am very sure that no one will want to miss out on tomorrow's who's-best piano showdown.
(No, I will not be offering 'live' commentary from my blog)
That may just be possible, considering there's wireless there and I have a laptop which I carry around to update.
1st Prize: Zhang Aidi
2nd Prize: Soh Ser Yee
3rd Prize: Wilford
There was not much change in my predictions except that I though Ser Yee's brother would get second. But to be fair I did not watch much of the Intermediate category and I was not sure what the results would be, but I guessed the results on the basis that I know all of them and their playing.
Here are the results of Senior:
1st Prize: NA
2nd Prize: Royce
3rd Prize: Jin Yujia
Honorable Mention: Shawn Neo
I know everyone here, but I am surprised at the results. While on the bus trip back home though, I gave it a thought and I realised that the judges were right.
Shawn's variety in his Chopin Concerto was little, and although he did so well in the lyrical department, there was not enough showcase of his octane department. To put it in short, we did not see enough of his technique in this concerto. Besides, this piece does not really show much of his ability to 'play with the orchestra'
The reason why Yujia (Grieg Concerto in A) didn't get top, I reckoned, was probably because of either the age concern, or the lack of variety again. There was a huge show of technical runs, but the melodious parts were not, in entirely my own opinion, not distinct enough.
Royce (Scriabin Concerto in F# minor) feautured good coordination with his accompanist, but probably it was this extra effort to simultaneously (maybe overly) replicate every action that was a plus point. I noticed a good balance of both lyrical and technical playing in his piece. But ultimately he was not spared - some of the pedalling was overdone and I could hardly hear the runs up and down the keyboard that were evident throughout the piece.
Some of the costumes of the day were terribly dull, like Yujia's. Come on, she wore white for all her concerts and all the rounds of this year's competition and the competition two years back.
Ultimately it was a feeling of deja vu when I heard there was no first prize. Urgh.
Mothers have been making logical fallacies - mainly post hoc - Post hoc ergo propter hoc. (Rafflesians should know this) For example, because of Yujia wearing the same costume always, she didn't win top. And many more. Why not because I didn't go to the restroom in the final category, no one got first. It gets irritating after while, but we all know that there is no proof. It's stupid, lah.
Tomorrow will be a so-interesting day, mainly because we will be treated to a showdown between two YST students and one NAFA student in the Final round of the Artist Category.
Andre (Cheo Yong) will be playing Mozart Concerto - the one he played with Dewi. Shih Wei will be playing Grieg Concerto, and Weijie from NAFA will be playing Tchaikovsky Concerto - yes, the famous one. And so I am very sure that no one will want to miss out on tomorrow's who's-best piano showdown.
(No, I will not be offering 'live' commentary from my blog)
That may just be possible, considering there's wireless there and I have a laptop which I carry around to update.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Blog Frenzy!
Earlier this morning I decided to go blogsurfing and started off with Adriel's blog, which lead me on to quite a number of other blogs. This turned out to be a blessing in not form of disguise, but I managed to add some links and rewew others. Some new links I've added (after so long) are Theophilus's and John Lee's, and links that I have updated include David's.
I find David's URL interesting, about Ming the Mollusc, who lived about 400 years old. Of course, with such a creature living on this Earth for so long (come on, Ming lived through Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, World War II, atomic bomb), in David's own words:
How sad :( 405 years of tranquility gone in a instant. Anyway it is and has always been the case, where man destroys nature hidden secrets without realising it before it's too late. This..isn't the first time..
.
Maybe if we had known of its existence we would have taken care of our Earth much better. But we should not use that as an excuse.
While I was blog-surfing though, I came to Theophilus's blog and saw some of his compositions posted online. I can hear it in my head, but I would rather listen to it real. I also read on how John Lee's Peculiar Octet sounds fantastic but I haven't really seen the score, and would also want to listen to it realtime! It is really exciting to see how these guys - brothers in music, as stated on Theophilus's blog - work on their music, and I would be taking this opportunity to learn much from them though. I went to the Straight Times and found some really humorous and touching links.
Should you click on Theophilus's Dad's link, you would see, of course, the blog of his Dad. And it really makes me smile in a way that there is firstly, a typo, a matter of so-close-yet-so-far. Just like my own Dad when he types! But people do grow old, and someday I'll be typimg likr this. As what I always say, a beautiful psycho-motor problem.
And then secondly you see a lack of content, except for a statement stating that Mr. Quek is basically a private person. But I'm not being critical at all, because you see, adults are busy and for goodness, guys need to work! So I'm not surprise there's a lack of posts. But next time I'll get a job that requires me simply to arrange music, perform music, compose music, so I'll get home by 10pm and then I can blog on the day's lessons.
On to Mrs Quek. I was pretty touched when I read the December 1st blogpost, and although it was in Chinese, I could understand all of it. (Just like how I don't know what the content of a chapter is about, but when I read the word 杀, I know, man, someone's dying)
But I understood the whole blogpost, and there was so much power in it and encouragement. Talk about a mother I read in Reader's Digest lifting an entire car because her child's leg was trapped under the front tire. (Simply undigestable!)
And well all I could say was that without doubt all rational mums would think like that (and without doubt mine will too), just that we don't know how to express it. It's like, when others are pissed they let it out through their mouths but when I'm pissed - no, I don't let wind - it dissolves and turns into fake anger and then becomes happiness.
Talk about people like that, man!
(My youngest aunt will be leaving my cousins and uncle to Korea in 5 days, while my 5th aunt will be going to Taiwan with cousins and uncle. I'll still be in Singapore, fortunately, because there isn't really going to be a piano anywhere else in hotels...)
Monday, December 10, 2007
HINDRAF peace protests
And so the night before, I dutifully set the alarm at 6.55am, and my mother did so too. We weren't planning to miss out on the semi-finals of the Artist category. But sometimes plans do go out of plan, don't they? Oops. So this was one of the plans that went wrong. My alarm kept sounding, and my mum's too. So it got very irritating, and I decided to grope my way around the table beside my bed, found the phone and off it went.
Now here's where the plan gone wrong. I was supposed to wake up and get my teeth brushed, but I, being a lazy 15 year old, decided to continue sleeping, and sleep I did.
My mum's phone alarm also went off already, and the family didn't wake up until 8am, which if we had woken up at that time gave us about a full hour to prepare and go, but we didn't. The decision was that the parents go to the market and get some food while I stayed at home and sleep.
It was one decision that I couldn't ignore and I fell asleep.
At the end of the day, I just want to of course say sorry for being able to get details on today's Artist Category semi-finals results, but I don't think all of you would mind anyway. Somehow I realised that I wasn't getting enough sleep, if we all consider together that I slept at 12am and woke up at 7am just to take the bus to watch the concert. (Come on, 7 hours of sleep is simply not enough!)
Recently and suddenly we have had from protests in Kuala Lumpur from nowhere - we all point the noise to HINDRAF (Hindus' Right Action Force/Haiz Indians Really Are Fighting). Here's a picture on the left of the protest.
All of the accusers have been charged with sedition though, and we're most likely going to see an increase of Hindus in Malaysian jails.
Now here's where the plan gone wrong. I was supposed to wake up and get my teeth brushed, but I, being a lazy 15 year old, decided to continue sleeping, and sleep I did.
My mum's phone alarm also went off already, and the family didn't wake up until 8am, which if we had woken up at that time gave us about a full hour to prepare and go, but we didn't. The decision was that the parents go to the market and get some food while I stayed at home and sleep.
It was one decision that I couldn't ignore and I fell asleep.
At the end of the day, I just want to of course say sorry for being able to get details on today's Artist Category semi-finals results, but I don't think all of you would mind anyway. Somehow I realised that I wasn't getting enough sleep, if we all consider together that I slept at 12am and woke up at 7am just to take the bus to watch the concert. (Come on, 7 hours of sleep is simply not enough!)
Recently and suddenly we have had from protests in Kuala Lumpur from nowhere - we all point the noise to HINDRAF (Hindus' Right Action Force/Haiz Indians Really Are Fighting). Here's a picture on the left of the protest.If you can see clearly it says "WE ARE MARCHING PEACEFULLY TO SUBMIT A MEMORANDUM IN THE BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION. 'THIS IS OUR INSTITUTIONAL RIGHT' WE ARE NOT OUT TO CREATE (sic) ANY CRIMINAL ACTS AGAINST THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT OR THE RULING ELITE"
No, I'm not going to talk about any corruption from the Malaysian Government now, (although we have had a little flashbacks from the lighthouse matter) but I seriously do think that Singapore's much better at building racial harmony. But as my dad always say, it's because Singapore's population is small and it does not occupy such huge geographical space. Simply look at the highways in Malaysia - what, 600km? - compared to 50km of a highway in Singapore. Of course, it's much dirtier in Malaysia considering they have much more space to take care of.
In any case I would, or used to, ask my dad why not ask Malaysia to give some land to Singapore since we can do a better job of it? Now call that immature.
Back to the racial problem, I seriously do believe that these people are making a big fuss out of nothing - I mean, why not do it the Singapore way, put it on the Forum, ask why the Government is demolishing Hindu temples. (In case you don't know what HINDRAF is complaining about, one of the main reasons is that they are tearing down Hindu temples simply to make space for development. They are also asking the goverment to give more aid to Tamil schools, and - here's the controversial part - free al Indians held without trial in Simpang Renggam, Johor.
There are several other demands also, such as having a Chinese holding the Finance Minister position, because HINDRAF thinks there are too many UMNO leaders holding top portfolios. (This is the part that probably gets the Chinese supporting HINDRAF)
They also want the Government to open up a Second Deputy Prime Minister position to be held by a non-Malay.
So as I was saying, why not put it on Forum, and ask about it? Maybe if we think further, the New Strait Times (Malaysian national papers) did not publish the issue, and this led to the uproar of the Malaysian Hindus. We have had already the Sultan criticising this issue, as stated on yesterday's the Sunday times, and I read that this was pretty rare, having the royalty given their position on these sort of things. Well, our Excellency President Nathan would have done just that if boys started going on peaceful protests about top PSLE scores going to girls. We won't do that though - we're too lazy man.
I seriously doubt that the Malaysian Government would be able to fulfil all the requirements as stated by our dear HINDRAF, and what's making matters worse is that they have arrested all the founding people of HINDRAF. Should this carry on though, it's only a matter of time before they move on to violence - inevitable since the people who form this entire organisation are mostly made of men.
On a lighter note, $5 says that you haven't seen a single woman squatting down near the Petronas Twin Towers and holding out against a water cannon on the news.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
partly because he
Here's an update to today's crunch day at Alliance Francaise - the National Piano and Violin Competition.
1st
Before I go on, here's a picture I took at home of my latest composition:
Now back to the competition. For the intermediate category, the finalists were announced today have 2 hours of performance from 6 participants, the youngest being only eleven.
If he wins first prize, I'll be in big trouble, partly because he won 1st prize just 2 years back in the Junior Category, and if he wins 1st prize again this year in Intermediate, it's simply amazing. But well of course the world is full of surprise, although I'm not betting on him winning the 1st prize. I'm betting on Zhang Aidi! Unfortunately Deanna didn't make it into the finals, but I guess life has to move on. I don't have much say in this, simply because I did not participate in the competition and I'm not feeling ANY kind of pressure.
After watching the Senior Category I felt regretful though, entirely because I thought if I participated I could have beaten all the current players. Surprise surprise, all the finalists are from the Raffles family. They are - Shawn Neo, Thomas Ang, Royce, and Jin Yu Jia (who's from RGS)
While waiting for another semi-finalist and Yu Jia to finish playing, Tiffany, Rafael, Shuqi, Yong Han and I were sitting around the tables near the huge staircase structure and we talked for an hour and a half...what a funny conversation I had. Probably one of the best and funniest group conversations I ever had in my life.
While we were at it though, news flooded in all the way from Esplanade Recital Hall to Alliance Francaise that the winners of the Violin Senior Category included Alan (Choo), who was 2nd, and Lee Ning, who was 3rd. There was no 1st prize - what a feeling of deja vu I get!
In any case, today was a highly intense day with all the competing, and I certainly look forward to Wednesday, day of the finals. It will indeed be another intense day, and you guys aren't going to miss any of it with me reporting!
__________________________________________
Food at Food Republic
My mum and I went to Food Republic (as per usual for the past 3 days) and we ate some good food there. Yesterday I ate a total of 6.90 for simply one meal. How terrible. I've never spent so much money at once for a meal (not including McDonalds) the food was good - fried rice, egg, fish coated with some sort of butter. Too bad I didn't take a picture of it. You guys might just be full of looking at the picture though.
I've decided to get a new skin because I thought the old one was rather cramped and hard to read.
Hope the new skin works for you people...
1st
Before I go on, here's a picture I took at home of my latest composition:
Now back to the competition. For the intermediate category, the finalists were announced today have 2 hours of performance from 6 participants, the youngest being only eleven.
If he wins first prize, I'll be in big trouble, partly because he won 1st prize just 2 years back in the Junior Category, and if he wins 1st prize again this year in Intermediate, it's simply amazing. But well of course the world is full of surprise, although I'm not betting on him winning the 1st prize. I'm betting on Zhang Aidi! Unfortunately Deanna didn't make it into the finals, but I guess life has to move on. I don't have much say in this, simply because I did not participate in the competition and I'm not feeling ANY kind of pressure.
After watching the Senior Category I felt regretful though, entirely because I thought if I participated I could have beaten all the current players. Surprise surprise, all the finalists are from the Raffles family. They are - Shawn Neo, Thomas Ang, Royce, and Jin Yu Jia (who's from RGS)
While waiting for another semi-finalist and Yu Jia to finish playing, Tiffany, Rafael, Shuqi, Yong Han and I were sitting around the tables near the huge staircase structure and we talked for an hour and a half...what a funny conversation I had. Probably one of the best and funniest group conversations I ever had in my life.
While we were at it though, news flooded in all the way from Esplanade Recital Hall to Alliance Francaise that the winners of the Violin Senior Category included Alan (Choo), who was 2nd, and Lee Ning, who was 3rd. There was no 1st prize - what a feeling of deja vu I get!
In any case, today was a highly intense day with all the competing, and I certainly look forward to Wednesday, day of the finals. It will indeed be another intense day, and you guys aren't going to miss any of it with me reporting!
__________________________________________
Food at Food Republic
My mum and I went to Food Republic (as per usual for the past 3 days) and we ate some good food there. Yesterday I ate a total of 6.90 for simply one meal. How terrible. I've never spent so much money at once for a meal (not including McDonalds) the food was good - fried rice, egg, fish coated with some sort of butter. Too bad I didn't take a picture of it. You guys might just be full of looking at the picture though.
I've decided to get a new skin because I thought the old one was rather cramped and hard to read.
Hope the new skin works for you people...
Saturday, December 8, 2007
compositions and blogthings
I'm done with another composition! This one's Opus 3.
These are some pieces I've composed:
Tango Op.1
In Honour of Mr. Rajaratnam Op.2
Etude in D Op.3
There are many much more but I have yet to catalogue them. Meanwhile, I'm working towards a piano concerto to be completed before my 16th birthday. I have had both the motives I need and the second and third movements in my head already. Here's something from blogthings...
and here's another:
Ok here's cheers to one day over
These are some pieces I've composed:
Tango Op.1
In Honour of Mr. Rajaratnam Op.2
Etude in D Op.3
There are many much more but I have yet to catalogue them. Meanwhile, I'm working towards a piano concerto to be completed before my 16th birthday. I have had both the motives I need and the second and third movements in my head already. Here's something from blogthings...
You Are a Pundit Blogger! |
 Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few |
and here's another:
You Are a Peacemaker Soul |
 You strive to please others and compromise anyway you can. War or conflict bothers you, and you would do anything to keep the peace. You are a good mediator and a true negotiator. Sometimes you do too much, trying so hard to make people happy. While you keep the peace, you tend to be secretly judgmental. You lose respect for people who don't like to both give and take. On the flip side, you've got a graet sense of humor and wit. You're always dimplomatic and able to give good advice. Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul, Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul |
Ok here's cheers to one day over
Concert, Competition
Watched the NYSE concert yesterday!
I noticed some really good ensemble players, and of course good soloists, but all in all it was a satisfactory concert.
We started the concert off with a Haydn Quartet, the usual classical starter, and it was a starter for what was to come for the rest of the evening. I personally felt the tone was strong, although some of the harmonies turned out sounding wrong because of the not-so-solid bass line.
And then we had another quartet from the same period - Mozart's this time - this was a Secondary 3 quartet and their performance was up to standard. Pretty ordinary though, although I can put to blame some of the audience-cringing parts to the not-steady bass-line
There were performances that were really imbalanced and thus good, and some ensemble players stood out...Trio in D (played by Marie, Naijing and Melissa) was almost flawless, except for teeny-weeny snippets of slip-ups, but nonetheless they all were together on every beat. Structurally clear, stylistically correct, and organised and agreed-upon techniques.
Advantine - by Serge Lancen - being modern, was understandably dissonantal, and not by any fault of the performers. I was definitely not used to the suspensions used (not forgetting the consecutive perfect 5ths in 'Cherry Blossoms'). However the section with the 'Silent Night' motive was amazing if readers are reminded that it was a bass quartet performing this, and they made the best out of it although a lack of instrumental contrast was in front of them.
Earlier in the first half was a reminder of RV-RISE's Christmas Concert with Cao Yun and Elissa Wong playing Ave Maria (Ave Mart was a typo I suppose). A timely reminder that Christmas is coming!
Going back to the 1st half of the concert, the composition by Ho Chee Kong brought a new contrast to the classical music presented in this half of the concert, with three Chinese instruments and a cello. Nonetheless, for those classical ears out there who have rarely heard consecutives perfect 4ths and 5ths, this was the time to cringe. But I thought it didn't quite bring out the mood that the title was supposed to give - 'Cherry Blossoms'
Divertimento in E featured the Secondary 3 trio (Fiona, Kimyung, Audrey), of which I was given a very lousy image of a performance way before the concert started. However it turned out contrary to the performance I had in mind. I only wished they selected a different style to perform though, considering we have altogether 6 classical quartets and trios - none of the performers' faults though.
I noted a few good ensemble players, two of them from the last Quartet in A by Mozart - Koh Hui Lin and Joan Fun - the latter being Shangxuan's professed beloved and later denied saying he was joking but later saying that she was indeed his beloved and so on and so forth. But special mention goes to them because of their good ears, for ears are the second most important assets of the musician (after the fingers, look at Beethoven). Although there was a slip-up (I think) the second violinist and the viola quickly caught up and all was alright. The good ears were mainly related to their adjusting of tuning to the cellist (again). They did well to wrap up the concert.
Although Mr Sze wasn't here in Singapore to watch the concert, I'm sure he would have a positive overview of the concert also. But no bets given though.
A good concert to end a good day.
__________________________________________________________
Saturday, 8 December
I woke up terribly late this morning to miss half-an-hour of the quarter-finals of the Artist category! However when I first entered the theatre I heard an old favourite piece of mine (which I've already perfected to a degree that I was able to play the piece without any comments from Mdm Fang last time) - Allegro de Concierto! I thought I could play better than it though.
There was a solid rendition by a Shaun of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor, and there was something so fantastic about it that it didn't feel boring at all for roughly 20 minutes. Everything was there, except for him looking into the audience when someone made a sound. Maybe he thought that the judges had stopped him. In any case, his playing was solid, stylistically correct being one of the major factors in piano playing. It combined the beautiful contrapuntal style of Bach, and the virtuosity of Busoni, and I thought it was a perfect combination. Kudos to him! He got in to the semi-finals.
Of course I have to mention Andre Kwon, (No. 1), who performed my second favourite piece of Chopin (after Andante Spianato) - the 'Heroic' Polonaise! Yes and he got into the semi-finals too, expectedly.
I missed Han Ching's performance, but I know that she had 3 Liszt pieces in her competition repertoire, and her technique was brilliant. She made it into the semi-finals too.
The downside for the YST students was that Imma didn't make it, but I suppose the competition was pretty strong.
Tomorrow is crunch day, for it is the semi-finals of the Intermediate and Senior categories! Pretty big for me considering I can participate in both categories although I chose not to this year.
For those who have been asking why I did not join this year's Competition (which numbers a lot), I had:
1) YST audtion
2) New York trip
3) LRSM exam
Of which all of them were successful and I decided to take a break off my shoulders. So these are the reasons I didn't participate.
For now, let's all wait for tomorrow to come!
I noticed some really good ensemble players, and of course good soloists, but all in all it was a satisfactory concert.
We started the concert off with a Haydn Quartet, the usual classical starter, and it was a starter for what was to come for the rest of the evening. I personally felt the tone was strong, although some of the harmonies turned out sounding wrong because of the not-so-solid bass line.
And then we had another quartet from the same period - Mozart's this time - this was a Secondary 3 quartet and their performance was up to standard. Pretty ordinary though, although I can put to blame some of the audience-cringing parts to the not-steady bass-line
There were performances that were really imbalanced and thus good, and some ensemble players stood out...Trio in D (played by Marie, Naijing and Melissa) was almost flawless, except for teeny-weeny snippets of slip-ups, but nonetheless they all were together on every beat. Structurally clear, stylistically correct, and organised and agreed-upon techniques.
Advantine - by Serge Lancen - being modern, was understandably dissonantal, and not by any fault of the performers. I was definitely not used to the suspensions used (not forgetting the consecutive perfect 5ths in 'Cherry Blossoms'). However the section with the 'Silent Night' motive was amazing if readers are reminded that it was a bass quartet performing this, and they made the best out of it although a lack of instrumental contrast was in front of them.
Earlier in the first half was a reminder of RV-RISE's Christmas Concert with Cao Yun and Elissa Wong playing Ave Maria (Ave Mart was a typo I suppose). A timely reminder that Christmas is coming!
Going back to the 1st half of the concert, the composition by Ho Chee Kong brought a new contrast to the classical music presented in this half of the concert, with three Chinese instruments and a cello. Nonetheless, for those classical ears out there who have rarely heard consecutives perfect 4ths and 5ths, this was the time to cringe. But I thought it didn't quite bring out the mood that the title was supposed to give - 'Cherry Blossoms'
Divertimento in E featured the Secondary 3 trio (Fiona, Kimyung, Audrey), of which I was given a very lousy image of a performance way before the concert started. However it turned out contrary to the performance I had in mind. I only wished they selected a different style to perform though, considering we have altogether 6 classical quartets and trios - none of the performers' faults though.
I noted a few good ensemble players, two of them from the last Quartet in A by Mozart - Koh Hui Lin and Joan Fun - the latter being Shangxuan's professed beloved and later denied saying he was joking but later saying that she was indeed his beloved and so on and so forth. But special mention goes to them because of their good ears, for ears are the second most important assets of the musician (after the fingers, look at Beethoven). Although there was a slip-up (I think) the second violinist and the viola quickly caught up and all was alright. The good ears were mainly related to their adjusting of tuning to the cellist (again). They did well to wrap up the concert.
Although Mr Sze wasn't here in Singapore to watch the concert, I'm sure he would have a positive overview of the concert also. But no bets given though.
A good concert to end a good day.
__________________________________________________________
Saturday, 8 December
I woke up terribly late this morning to miss half-an-hour of the quarter-finals of the Artist category! However when I first entered the theatre I heard an old favourite piece of mine (which I've already perfected to a degree that I was able to play the piece without any comments from Mdm Fang last time) - Allegro de Concierto! I thought I could play better than it though.
There was a solid rendition by a Shaun of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor, and there was something so fantastic about it that it didn't feel boring at all for roughly 20 minutes. Everything was there, except for him looking into the audience when someone made a sound. Maybe he thought that the judges had stopped him. In any case, his playing was solid, stylistically correct being one of the major factors in piano playing. It combined the beautiful contrapuntal style of Bach, and the virtuosity of Busoni, and I thought it was a perfect combination. Kudos to him! He got in to the semi-finals.
Of course I have to mention Andre Kwon, (No. 1), who performed my second favourite piece of Chopin (after Andante Spianato) - the 'Heroic' Polonaise! Yes and he got into the semi-finals too, expectedly.
I missed Han Ching's performance, but I know that she had 3 Liszt pieces in her competition repertoire, and her technique was brilliant. She made it into the semi-finals too.
The downside for the YST students was that Imma didn't make it, but I suppose the competition was pretty strong.
Tomorrow is crunch day, for it is the semi-finals of the Intermediate and Senior categories! Pretty big for me considering I can participate in both categories although I chose not to this year.
For those who have been asking why I did not join this year's Competition (which numbers a lot), I had:
1) YST audtion
2) New York trip
3) LRSM exam
Of which all of them were successful and I decided to take a break off my shoulders. So these are the reasons I didn't participate.
For now, let's all wait for tomorrow to come!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Headline News: Nebraska Shopping Centre Shooting kills 8
This blogpost marks an end to the past 3 days starting from Tuesday.
I was sent to my aunt's house for 3 days (because my mum was sick and couldn't cook) and 2 nights, and when it finally ended I went to watch the National Piano and Violin Competition, which I enjoyed.
The 3 days and 2 nights was lovely, and I have to thank my mum for letting me go there and my aunt for cooking good food! yumyum.
My time there was super relaxed, reading the papers in the morning, breakfast, playing games in the afternoon, swimming in the late afternoon,lunch, playing card games and computer also, watch TV, dinner, watch deal or no deal, computer games, composing (for me) in the basement, yu-gi-oh (some card game), a heavy game of Monopoly (till 1am), brush teeth, sleep.
Indeed a life of leisure.
I must finish my latest composition by January!
On to the competition, there was of course the good pianists and the not-so-good pianists. Some were fantastic, and of which I feel worthy to post here. Shawn Neo was one of them, his Liszt was polished and structurally clear, emotionally clear, and not lacking in technique.
His Liszt came in an 'entire package', the phrases were well-strung together, and he was sure of what he was doing. Odds are 2:1 he gets into the semi-finals.
Thomas Ang's 'the Lark' was controlled in terms of melody and pedalling, and he managed to create beautiful repeats of the melody. He will get in to, if tomorrow's contestants are not stronger.
I liked Nicholas (Ho)'s performance, although I cannot approach Hammerklavier with such a relaxed attitude because I have yet to play any late Beethoven sonatas, and I couldn't understand the fugue. Maybe there was too much pedal? There was hell lots of virtuosity in the Prokofiev, and his teacher had at the end of the piece give him the most applause...worthy of this virtuosic performance. He should get into the semis also though, but because of the lack of lyrical music (I was finding for diversity), he might face more competition.
So that pretty much rounds up the first day of competition for me, second official day of the competition. (I missed the Junior Category yesterday, but worth it since I was having some leisure time in the 5-storey houses of my aunties.)
Is it any wonder that I have 10 hits on yahoo.com under my full name?
I was sent to my aunt's house for 3 days (because my mum was sick and couldn't cook) and 2 nights, and when it finally ended I went to watch the National Piano and Violin Competition, which I enjoyed.
The 3 days and 2 nights was lovely, and I have to thank my mum for letting me go there and my aunt for cooking good food! yumyum.
My time there was super relaxed, reading the papers in the morning, breakfast, playing games in the afternoon, swimming in the late afternoon,lunch, playing card games and computer also, watch TV, dinner, watch deal or no deal, computer games, composing (for me) in the basement, yu-gi-oh (some card game), a heavy game of Monopoly (till 1am), brush teeth, sleep.
Indeed a life of leisure.
I must finish my latest composition by January!
On to the competition, there was of course the good pianists and the not-so-good pianists. Some were fantastic, and of which I feel worthy to post here. Shawn Neo was one of them, his Liszt was polished and structurally clear, emotionally clear, and not lacking in technique.
His Liszt came in an 'entire package', the phrases were well-strung together, and he was sure of what he was doing. Odds are 2:1 he gets into the semi-finals.
Thomas Ang's 'the Lark' was controlled in terms of melody and pedalling, and he managed to create beautiful repeats of the melody. He will get in to, if tomorrow's contestants are not stronger.
I liked Nicholas (Ho)'s performance, although I cannot approach Hammerklavier with such a relaxed attitude because I have yet to play any late Beethoven sonatas, and I couldn't understand the fugue. Maybe there was too much pedal? There was hell lots of virtuosity in the Prokofiev, and his teacher had at the end of the piece give him the most applause...worthy of this virtuosic performance. He should get into the semis also though, but because of the lack of lyrical music (I was finding for diversity), he might face more competition.
So that pretty much rounds up the first day of competition for me, second official day of the competition. (I missed the Junior Category yesterday, but worth it since I was having some leisure time in the 5-storey houses of my aunties.)
Is it any wonder that I have 10 hits on yahoo.com under my full name?
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Arsenal!
I am in the midst of an unhealthy addiction towards the Beatles. I suppose it is a musical addiction, for afterall I'm simply listening to their music. But it starts to get unhealthy when all you do is to stare at their music videos again and again...
On the sports side Arsenal beat Aston Villa 2-1! How happy I am to hear this news.
Here's a picture of the two strikers of my favourite team...
I noticed a few weeks back that there was an obvious trend in club-supporting.
The fanbase of Liverpool is generally high because of Liverpool's dominance in the 1980s...so we have all the adults supporting Liverpool. And then those who at my age follow soccer earlier will have Manchester United, because of their dominance in 1999, where they won the Triple (Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup) - Sorry girls and guys if you have no idea what I'm talking about. You can skip this part.
And finally there was the winning spree of Arsenal where they went unbeaten in 49 games in 2004. And I caught the football fever, supporting Arsenal.
I heard Aunty Eunice (living next door) play We Wish You A Merry Christmas yesterday night on the violin, and I did roughly 10 variations on it immediately on the piano (improvising). I think they (with her daughters) heard it, because they stopped playing their violins.
Will write something in the evening.
Meanwhile, shall I get a wordpress blog?
On the sports side Arsenal beat Aston Villa 2-1! How happy I am to hear this news.
Here's a picture of the two strikers of my favourite team...
I noticed a few weeks back that there was an obvious trend in club-supporting.
The fanbase of Liverpool is generally high because of Liverpool's dominance in the 1980s...so we have all the adults supporting Liverpool. And then those who at my age follow soccer earlier will have Manchester United, because of their dominance in 1999, where they won the Triple (Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup) - Sorry girls and guys if you have no idea what I'm talking about. You can skip this part.
And finally there was the winning spree of Arsenal where they went unbeaten in 49 games in 2004. And I caught the football fever, supporting Arsenal.
I heard Aunty Eunice (living next door) play We Wish You A Merry Christmas yesterday night on the violin, and I did roughly 10 variations on it immediately on the piano (improvising). I think they (with her daughters) heard it, because they stopped playing their violins.
Will write something in the evening.
Meanwhile, shall I get a wordpress blog?
Saturday, December 1, 2007
My Week
Concerning the online poll - Singapore won 15-1, which isn't really fair in my opinion, when this is a Singaporean blog with predominantly Singaporean readers. We shall wait for the results in January from the ICJ.
I am playing my own composition during studio class on Monday after a discussion with my piano teacher - it was a piece composed for my class assignment in the musicology class, and so I'm playing it.
We had the party yesterday! There was plenty of food for starters - spaghetti, two huge steamed chickens, ice cream, one cake, grapes, strawberries, drinks, and snacks like Nachos, Pringles.
The chickens were really American, the reason being that they were dry on the outside, so tender was the meat, and not forgetting the juiciness of it. Very tasty, the chicken. We were literally taking chunks of the white meat, and later in the night (which lasted till 12) we had to put it on the middle of the living room table and take off chunks of it and finish it up.
Games were not forgotten of course, and we played 15-20, Blind Man's Bluff, and Pictionary. My team won! (Consisting of Irwin, Hanching (later Akkra) and me) Miss Hahn said it was unfair since we had two native speakers and one super alert person (Akkra)
We beat the rest in the end, and it was pretty fun, with Mr Kawai Shui around.
Party aside, I took notice that almost every Saturday now in the World section there is mention about global warming, and I hope it has destroyed all thoughts of it being fake or hoax. Even then, I don't think that should now be the problem, because we should be focusing more now on how to stay alive and save the planet.
On the more phoney matters - I have received no more than 5 smses and calls this entire week - for a period of time I suspected I had yet to pay my phone bill (which were confirmed to be true) but the messages still didn't come until yesterday at the party when my dad sent a message during the party.
To more of the academic side, I got next year's literature book - Gulliver's Travels. Can't wait to improve my literary skills and of course my writing skills. Gulliver's Travels is good read though, after you read between the lines - sometimes he's amusing, but then you realise that there are darker representations and things that he wants you to understand. Of course, that's why we call them satires. Especially the part where he peed on the Lilliput Emperor's Palace in order to quench the fire, but got accused of treason (?)
I have yet to talk about my trip to Malaysia from Tuesday to Thursday though - met my cousin's daughter, wrote 2 chapters of The Wonderland of Music, altogether being 8 pages of foolscap paper. Planning to transfer them onto Microsoft Word, and do some heavy editing.
Probably some composing to do in the late evening, melodic minor scales, and my composition - Tango for Audiences and Piano
I am playing my own composition during studio class on Monday after a discussion with my piano teacher - it was a piece composed for my class assignment in the musicology class, and so I'm playing it.
We had the party yesterday! There was plenty of food for starters - spaghetti, two huge steamed chickens, ice cream, one cake, grapes, strawberries, drinks, and snacks like Nachos, Pringles.
The chickens were really American, the reason being that they were dry on the outside, so tender was the meat, and not forgetting the juiciness of it. Very tasty, the chicken. We were literally taking chunks of the white meat, and later in the night (which lasted till 12) we had to put it on the middle of the living room table and take off chunks of it and finish it up.
Games were not forgotten of course, and we played 15-20, Blind Man's Bluff, and Pictionary. My team won! (Consisting of Irwin, Hanching (later Akkra) and me) Miss Hahn said it was unfair since we had two native speakers and one super alert person (Akkra)
We beat the rest in the end, and it was pretty fun, with Mr Kawai Shui around.
Party aside, I took notice that almost every Saturday now in the World section there is mention about global warming, and I hope it has destroyed all thoughts of it being fake or hoax. Even then, I don't think that should now be the problem, because we should be focusing more now on how to stay alive and save the planet.
On the more phoney matters - I have received no more than 5 smses and calls this entire week - for a period of time I suspected I had yet to pay my phone bill (which were confirmed to be true) but the messages still didn't come until yesterday at the party when my dad sent a message during the party.
To more of the academic side, I got next year's literature book - Gulliver's Travels. Can't wait to improve my literary skills and of course my writing skills. Gulliver's Travels is good read though, after you read between the lines - sometimes he's amusing, but then you realise that there are darker representations and things that he wants you to understand. Of course, that's why we call them satires. Especially the part where he peed on the Lilliput Emperor's Palace in order to quench the fire, but got accused of treason (?)
I have yet to talk about my trip to Malaysia from Tuesday to Thursday though - met my cousin's daughter, wrote 2 chapters of The Wonderland of Music, altogether being 8 pages of foolscap paper. Planning to transfer them onto Microsoft Word, and do some heavy editing.
Probably some composing to do in the late evening, melodic minor scales, and my composition - Tango for Audiences and Piano
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